AFLW season to clash with All-Ireland ladies championships

October 30, 2024

Orla O'Dwyer celebrates with the AFLW Premiership trophy.

Dual ladies football and Aussie Rules players could soon have to decide between both sports if the AFLW season is brought forward.

AFL executive general manager of football Laura Kane says the league is exploring an earlier start to next year’s AFLW season which would see it overlap with the All-Ireland ladies football championships. And that would leave the 36 Irish players currently on the books of AFLW clubs facing a major dilemma.

“We are definitely considering an earlier start,” Kane said on Talking W.

“What we do know is, we know we’ll be playing 12 games – that’s built into the CBA, which is terrific, more AFLW is terrific.

“And now the question is when do we start? There are a couple of important decisions that we have to make, one being when do we play the Grand Final? A focus for us over the past year or so has been building rituals into the AFLW fixture and making sure that our fans know when their team will be playing and that goes into the fixture build.

“So yes (earlier start), that’s something that we’re definitely considering.”


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